NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORT

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS AND ENTERPRENUERSHIP STUDIES

BACHELOR DEGREE IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

MODULE NAME : OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY SERVICES

MODULE CODE : BHU 08208

LECTURER NAME : MADAM BEATRICE

TASK : GROUP ASSIGNMENT

PARTICIPANTS

Students Name Registration No: Signature

MANGASINI, SHUKRANI NIT/BHRM/2015/185
SAM, GODBLESS NIT/BHRM/2015/138
MWASHIBANDA, MARIA NIT/BHRM/2015/224
PETER, OLIVER NIT/BHRM/2015/174
OKENO, HAMISI NIT/BHRM/2015/203
BALANG’ANYI, NZELA NIT/BHRM/2015/213
MWACHIKO, SHABANI NIT/BHRM/2015/154
LUGONDA, HELEN NIT/BHRM/2015/134

SUBMISSION DATE: 24st MAY, 2017

QUESTION
Visit any Company of your choice, study and describe how they conduct the risk assessment
Process as far as occupational health and safety management Field is concerned. In your essay be
sure to explain the following terms with vivid examples: Qualitative Risk assessment,
subjective risk assessment, risk residual, risk avoidance, risk transfer, risk reduction and
risk retention.

NB: Write your class project paper of not less than eight (8 pages) and support your essay with
not less than 10 readings.
HEALTH AND SAFETY RISK ASSESSMENT IN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION SITES
IN DAR-ES-SALAAM
A Case of Sea Rocks Investments Company: The Practice of Risk Assessment and Control
1.1 The Introduction to Health and Safety Risk Assessment in Construction Sites
The construction industry is an important part of the economy in Tanzania, often seen as the
driver of economic growth. Despite its importance, construction sites have been regarded as very
risky areas where construction workers are subject to fatalities and ill- health problems. Many
building construction activities are inherently risky to health and safety such as working at
height, working underground, working in confined spaces and close proximity to falling
materials, handling loads manually, handling hazardous substances, noises, dusts, using plant and
equipment, fire and exposure to live cables. In Tanzania, construction sites have been ranked as
the second most dangerous place in which to work after mines (Mbuya and Lema, 2002;
International labour organization (ILO), 2005). Moreover, deaths, permanent disabilities and
severe injuries have been on the increase for building workers through major accidents and poor
working conditions.
1.1.2 Definition of Key Terms

1.1.2.1 Risk
Risk has been traditionally defined as a measure of the probability and severity of adverse effects
(Haimes, 2009). Risk= (S, P, C): where S= Scenario leading to hazard P= Probability of
occurrence C= Consequence (severity)
1.1.2.2 Risk Assessment
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), (2008) defined risk assessment as a process that
identifies the hazards associated with particular activities/tasks, evaluates the effects of exposure
to these hazards and implements the measure needed to control the risk of injury/ill health to as
low a level as possible.
1.2.2.3 Qualitative Risk Assessment
Qualitative Risk Assessment is subjective, as it is carried out by individuals participating in a
project based on their personal perceptions of the risk likelihood and consequences. The purpose
of such analysis is to increase the awareness of the most likely and severe risks, identify weak
spots of a project and create risk responses to reduce the effect that these risks will have on a
project. (Barnard, 2005)
1.1.2.4 Quantitative Risk assessment
Quantitative risk analysis numerically evaluates the effect of potential project risks on project
targets. It is focused on creating realistic time and cost targets, and calculating the probability of
achieving project objectives. For example, it will quantify the impact of failing to obtain a
roadwork permit before the start of the project as causing a week delay and costing $50,000.sfer
or avoidance. (Rwamamara, 2007)
1.1.2.5 Residual Risk
Residual risk is the threat that remains after all efforts to identify and eliminate risk have been
made. (Rwamamara, 2007)
1.1.2.6 Risk Transfer
Risk transfer is a strategy of dealing with risks. It describes situation when we transfer the risk
to another person or entity such as insurance agency. Possibilities of risk transfer are like
Insurance - only addresses the financial aspect of the impact of the risk event, Outsourcing -
transfers the responsibility to the supplier, transfers the hazardous work to someone else,
Warranty, hedging (protection against exchange rate risk), futures - transfers the responsibility to
the supplier and Use of financial instruments such as leasing (Rwamamara, 2007)
1.1.2.7 Risk Reduction
Risk Reduction means the measures to reduce the frequency or severity of losses, also known as
loss control. May include engineering, fire protection, safety inspections, or claims management.
(Barnard, 2005)
1.1.2.8 Risk Reduction
Risk Retention refers to the handling risk by bearing the results of risk, rather than employing
other methods of handling it, such as Tran.
1.2 Legal Framework Sea Rocks Investments Co. Ltd Complying with Risk Assessment
Current Health and Safety Legislation covering Tanzanian Construction sector both international
and local institutions govern the safety and health at construction sites. The international ones
include the International Labour Organization's (ILO) conventions. Some of the most important
ILO conventions on health and safety in the construction industry are the ILO Convention No.
155of 1981 on Occupational Health and Safety and the ILO Convention No. 167 of 1988 on
Occupational Health and Safety in the construction industry. However local legal institutions are
constituted under the government.
1.2.1 Occupational Health and Safety Act of 2003
The occupational health and safety Act 2003 is the main legislation governing occupational
health and safety practices in Tanzania. It requires all workplaces to be registered under OSHA
so that they can be identified and recognised (section 16(1) and rules section 5 (1)). The act
requires all employers (the employer is the contractor) to conduct risk assessment and
communicate to workers what hazards exist and the control measures. Employers are also
required to provide welfare facilities such as sanitary, convenient and safe drinking water,
washing facilities, places for sitting and first-aid facilities. It requires all organisations to have in
place an effective health and safety policy, to appoint health and safety officers and workers’
health and safety representatives at workplaces with more than 20 employees, and to establish
health and safety committees where there are more than 50 employees.
1.2.2 The Contractor’s Registration Board Act, 1997 then 2010 (CRB)
The Contractor’s Registration Board (CRB) was established by section 3 of the Contractors
Registration Act No.17 of 1997 in Tanzania, which was amended and new act was formulated in
2010. The key functions of the board are to register, regulate and promote the activities and
conduct of all contractors in Tanzania. Clause 4(m) of the Contractors Registration Act, 2010
that established the Contractors Registration Board clearly mentions that one of the functions of
the board is to ensure that all construction sites have health and safety procedures it is a
requirement that the construction project must be registered under the CRB.
The act requires all construction sites to be boarded, all employers to maintain at every
construction site an accident register book, in which all accidents and incidents are recorded, to
provide appropriate safety gear to every person on site, to provide fire-fighting equipment on site
and to provide welfare facilities such as clean, safe and sufficient drinking water, water for
washing, toilets and changing rooms.
1.2.3 The Workers Compensation Act, 2008
This Act lays down the procedures for any worker, who gets injured while working, to be
compensated, specifically if the injury or death has been caused by the irresponsibility of the
employer. In fact, the Act aims to encourage safety and Health at workplaces including
construction sites.
1.3 Risk Assessment Process Approach to Construction Sites
Regardless of the differences in approaches or industries, most of the risk assessment process are
similar in terms of basic steps that contain the key components include work analysis, hazard
identification, risk estimation and risk evaluation. Some risk assessment process also includes
risk control as part of risk assessment. The complexity of risk assessment, and risk control
depends to a major extent on factors such as the size of the organization, the workplace situations
within the organization, and the nature, complexity, and significance of the risks to which the
organization is exposed (Rwamamara, 2007). The following sections discuss the details of each
stage of management.
1.3.1 Establish the Context
The first stage in the process of risk assessment is to establish the context of the work or analysis
of the work activities. At this stage the work activities can be analyzed by making a list of the
tasks that are relevant to each area of responsibility, such as excavations, concreting, brick/block
layering, scaffolding, handling, loading and unloading, roofing, steel fixing and transport. This
should include all activities that take place, the people involved in those activities, the equipment
they use and the different locations they work in. Various types of information might be used in
this initial exercise, including organizational charts and records, interviews and a ‘walk-through’
survey of the work areas involved. One of the most effective ways of ensuring that all activities
are listed is to walk around the workplace and see what is going on as it is possible that a hazard
could be overlooked without a site visit (Huges and Ferret, 2011).
1.3.2 Hazard Identification
Having established the tasks the assessor(s) must then identify what hazards are present, who
might be harmed and how. Hazard identification is aimed at determining potential risks
associated with any given assignment to be performed by an employee. It has been argued that
risk identification is the most important stage of the risk assessment (Carter and Smith, 2006). In
risk identification “HEEPO, which stands for Human, Equipment, Environment, Product and
Organization” has been used (Carter and Smith, 2006; Huges and Ferret, 2011). Thus hazard
identification should consider hazards associated with humans, such as hazards from equipment,
hazards from the work environment, for example, the condition of the site, hazards from the
product such as the design and specification of the materials, hazards from the organization such
as management styles and leadership.
There are a number of tools and techniques for identifying the health and safety hazard which
have been categorized in three groups as: intuitive, inductive or deductive. However, generally,
the methods include brainstorming, expert opinion, structured interviews, questionnaires,
checklists, historical data, previous experience, testing and modelling and evaluation of other
projects (Simu, 2007, Carter and Smith, 2006; Lingard and Rowlinson, 2005).
Table 1.1: Methods of Identifying Hazards and Hazardous Situations
Methods Examples
Intuitive Brain storming
Inductive Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA)
“What could go wrong?” Hazard and operability study (HAZOP)
“What if…?” Analysis of potential problems
Action error analysis
Job Safety Analysis (JSA)
Key points/checklists
Event Tree Analysis (ETA)
Deductive Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
“How can it happen?” Accident analysis

1.3.3 Risk Estimation and Characterization

In this step of the process, risks are estimated from the hazards identified in the preceding stage.
The consideration is made concerning how many people are exposed to each hazard and for how
long. Thus, the probability and severity of harm that can be caused by a hazard is considered. To
establish the probability and severity of harm, it has been argued that the estimator should have
an appreciation of the flow of the typical workday activities of construction activities.
Meanwhile, knowledge of the regulations and safety standards under which the facility operates
is also important, as some of the regulations provide guidelines on how risk should be assessed
and some potential hazards which may be encounter at construction sites. They further
emphasise that the greater the magnitude of risk, the greater the efforts that should be made to
control it and the greater the urgency to control the risk and take action. Table 1.2 shows the
Matrix for estimating qualitative risk.
Table 1.2 Risk matrix table for qualitative risk assessment and risk rating

Consequences Risk Ratings

Likelihood 1 2 3 4 5 Extreme
Negligible Minor Moderate Major Fatality High
injuries injury injury Moderate
A Very Likely A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 Low
B Likely B1 B2 B3 B4 B5
C Possible C1 C2 C3 C4 C5
D Unlikely D1 D2 D3 D4 D5
E Rare E1 E2 E3 E4 E5
Source: Adopted from Bowden et al 2001 and modified
Table 1.2 shows the simple ranking mechanism of the matrix, indicating different levels of risks
such as negligible injury as level 1, minor injury as level 2, moderate injury as level 3, major
injury as level 4, or fatality as level 5. Similarly likelihoods can be determined as: very likely —
level A, likely—level B, possible—level C, unlikely—level D, or rare—level E. Furthermore,
Table 1.2 indicates that there are 25 potential risk combinations and the risk outcomes have been
divided into four risk levels (ratings) namely, Extreme, High, Moderate and low. From this
rating, the extreme situation indicates there are fatal consequences which should be tackled first
while low rating indicates there is negligible injury which requires first aid.

Quantitative risk estimation (QRA) uses numerical values to express both the consequences and
likelihood of a given event. (Bowden et al 2001; Ayyub, 2003; Marhavilas and Koulouriotis,
2008). The risk is calculated considering the potential consequences of an accident, the exposure
factor and the probability factor (Marhavilas and Koulouriotis, 2008). Meanwhile, a risk matrix
is also used for quantifying risk as in the case of the qualitative approach. However, only
numbers are used to inform judgment on both probability and the consequences. Table 1.3 shows
the matrix for estimating quantitative risk.
Table 1.3: Matrix for Quantitative Approach for estimating and Rating Risk
Hazard Probability Ratings
Unacceptable 16-36
Severity of 1 2 3 4 5 6
consequences Undesirable 10-16
ratings
1 1 2 3 4 5 6 Acceptable with 5-9
2 2 4 6 8 10 12 controls
3 3 6 9 12 15 18 Acceptable 1-4
4 4 8 12 16 20 24
5 5 10 15 20 25 30
6 6 12 18 24 30 36
Source: adopted from Marhavilas & Koulouriotis, 2008 and modified

Table 1.3 indicates the matrix risk-assessment technique where six levels of risk matrix are
identified. It indicates that as both the severity and probability increase, the risk is higher. Table
1.3 also shows the risk rating where the higher numbers indicate higher risk and the situation is
unacceptable. QRA is generally considered to be most useful for quantifying offsite risk; for
example transportation of construction material, industrial production materials (Prefarication
materials), however, it can be useful in assessing on-site risk if sufficient details and an
understanding of the reality of people’s responses to accidents are included (Hughes and Ferrett,
2011).
1.3.4 Risk Evaluation
The purpose of risk evaluations is to decide whether or not a risk is tolerable (Lingard and
Rowlinson, 2005; Huges and Ferret, 2011). If the risk is regarded as acceptable as indicated in
Tables 1.2 and 1.3, it may be enough to control the risk instead of reducing it. However, if the
risk is regarded as unacceptable different risk reduction options have to be analyzed and
compared so that the best risk reduction option can be identified. The evaluating stage of the
risk-assessment process involves assessing the team making decisions on the most appropriate
risk control strategies.
Once a level has been established for the risk estimated, the levels are compared with previously
established risk criteria to create a prioritized list of risks to be controlled. It may become an
important task to identify and select the relevant specific risk criteria for specific estimated risks
in a specific country and/or industry. (Barnard, 2005).
1.3.5 Risk Control
A control measure is part of a facility, including any system, procedure, process or device that is
intended to eliminate hazards, prevent hazardous incidents from occurring or reduce the severity
of consequences of any incident that does occur (Lingard and Rowlinson, 2005.). In the
occupational health and safety context, risk control is categorised according to hierarchy, often
simply called the “risk control hierarchy.” The risk control hierarchy consists of five stages of
control risk as follows;
The first stage is elimination of the hazard. At this stage hazard is totally eliminated. For
example, the mechanization of tasks to remove manual handling or closing a road to traffic when
repairing a road are the most effective and preferred ways of controlling a risk because the
hazard is no longer present. However, it is difficult to eliminate all unsafe conditions, and
therefore elimination is not always possible (Marhavilas and Koulouriotis, 2008).
The second stage is reducing the hazard or making a substitution. At this stage the risk is
controlled by reducing it or substituting it with lesser hazards, such as using less toxic paint or
carrying a lighter load when handling manually.
The third stage is isolation where risks are combated at source and access to the hazard is
prevented, such as guarding machinery or installing barriers and fences, and installing edge
protection to open edges on landings, stairways and fixed platforms, sound enclosures and circuit
breakers.
The fourth stage is introducing a safe system of work (SSOW). This stage uses information such
as written procedures and safe systems of work, instruction, training and supervision. It ensures
that employees understand what they must do and when, how they must do it and what activities
are prohibited. These are work practices that alter the way the work is done in order to reduce the
risk of hazardous tasks. Providing personal protective equipment (PPE) is the last stage in the
Risk control hierarchy. It has been argued that PPE should be opted only as the last resort and
only after all other measures have been implemented (HSE, 1999; Huges and Ferret, 2011).
Conclusion
Therefore this survey may conclude that, the responsibility for construction site health and safety
lies with the main contractor, resulting in many designers, consultants and clients absolving
themselves from responsibility if accidents occur on the site. The active participation of clients
and design teams in the built environment in health and safety matters in Tanzania is yet to be
realized. Meanwhile an appropriate procurement practice that promotes the adoption of good
health and safety risk management is an should be observed.
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